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By TOM COLLOMOSSE Published: 09: 42 AEDT, 4 March 2025 | Updated: 09: 42 AEDT, 4 March 2025 3 View comments When Aston Villa took on Ajax in the Europa Conference League last season, manager Unai Emery treated himself to a spot of football tourism. As he arrived for the pre-match press conference at the Amsterdam Arena, Emery paused to examine the photographs on the walls. Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp were among the Ajax greats pictured and Emery pulled out his phone to take a few snaps. The tale shows why European competition sets Emery’s pulse racing a little quicker. With four continental trophies to his name as a manager, Emery is European royalty. Yet at heart he remains a fan. Ask Emery about Club Bruges and he would probably be able to place the Belgian champions’ European history in context, reeling off names and dates of former players and memorable matches. Combine that with his ferocious approach to training, analysis and tactics and you have a manager respected and feared by his peers. Carlo Ancelotti has lifted this trophy five times, twice with AC Milan and three times with Real Madrid. Barcelona boss Hansi Flick and Paris Saint-Germain’s Luis Enrique have one each, with Bayern Munich and Barca respectively. While Emery has never been beyond the last four of the Champions League, reaching that stage in 2022 with Villarreal — a club comparable to Brighton or Fulham in size and scale — was a supreme achievement. Aston Villa will take on Club Bruges in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 on Tuesday The teams will meet for the second time after the Belgian side claimed a 1-0 victory over Unai Emery's men in November The Spaniard's team comes after qualification to the FA Cup quarter-final following their 2-0 win over Cardiff City on Friday Besides, the four Europa League victories — three with Sevilla and one with Villarreal — are not to be sniffed at, and nor is Emery’s European experience. Across spells with Valencia, Spartak Moscow, Sevilla, Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain, Villarreal and Villa, he has taken charge of 110 European fixtures. ‘It is about trying to manage our emotion, ’ said Emery. ‘This tie is a key moment for the season in this competition. We have to try to play being responsible, mature and emotionally strong. ’ Emery will have stepped up his preparation for this fixture the second he left Villa Park after watching his side beat Cardiff 2-0 in the FA Cup on Friday. Though Villa have a team of data crunchers working with the manager, Emery is the chief analyst. He has watched Bruges several times since his team qualified for the FA Cup quarter- finals, also taking in their 1-1 draw at Gent on Saturday on his laptop. In conjunction with his analysts, Emery has prepared individual clips of the way Bruges attack and defend to deliver to players in pre-match meetings. These get-togethers take place both on the day of the game and the day before and can last as long as 90 minutes. In the case of Bruges, Emery has the perfect archive footage of how not to do it. Villa came here in November in the league phase and produced a lifeless display in losing 1-0. Though the manner of the defeat was bizarre — Tyone Mings picked up the ball inside his penalty area, believing it was not yet live, to concede a spot-kick — Bruges were deserving winners. Villa have lost eight of their last 10 away fixtures and Emery has started to worry that some of his players have lifted their foot off the pedal ever so slightly. The Spaniard confirmed a triple injury boost as Pau Torres, Tyrone Mings and Matty Cash have all travelled to Bruges Emery must decide whether to start newcomers Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio, who have proven valuable in Villa's recent games Looking into the eyes of his squad, he wants to see again the hunger that drove them from a relegation battle to a top-four finish in less than two years under his management. Emery’s hunger is never satisfied. That is why after every game, regardless of the result, he is straight on the laptop. That is why he spends most of his waking hours at Villa’s Bodymoor Heath training base, still at his desk when the security staff are ready to shut things down for the night. The cut-and-thrust of European knockout football is Emery’s happy place. While a few owners left in the Champions League would swap their club’s squad for Villa’s, plenty more would want Emery in their dugout instead of the opponents’. Now it falls to Villa’s players to make the most of that trump card.
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